Drafting the constitution

DRAFTING DE CONSTITUTION

Constitutional Congress: Fifty-five (55) delegates from 12 of the 13 states gathered at a convention

The Constitutional Congress had five goals:

1. Protect property.
2. Provide increased, but limited power to the federal government.
3. Protect and limit majority rule.
4. Protect individual rights.
5. Create a flexible framework for the United States government. 

Framers

They are called framers because they helped create the framework for the new governing document.

Federalists, like Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Adams wanted a strong federal government, but with power given to the states as well. 

Anti-Federalists, like Thomas Jefferson, the primary drafter of the Declaration of Independence, wanted the federal government to have even less power. They did not want the federal government, and especially the President, to have power similar to a King, which could lead to tyranny.

The Separation of Powers

John Adams advocated that power be split among three branches of the federal government, known as the separation of powers. Each branch was given specific powers and could limit the powers of the other branches. This is known as checks and balances. 

Representation and the Three-Fifths Compromise

One of the areas that caused significant debate was in the idea of representation for the legislative branch of the federal government.

The larger states favored James Madison's Virginia Plan, which proposed that states have representation in proportion to their population size. 

The smaller states favored William Paterson's New Jersey Plan, which proposed equal representation, regardless of their population size. 

States with slavery wanted those people that they enslaved to count toward their state population numbers for more representation, even though the enslaved people could not vote. 

States without slavery did not want enslaved people to b

 delegates created the Three-Fifths Compromise, which counted an enslaved person as three-fifths of a human being when calculating a state's population and tax contributions. The Three-Fifths Compromise also allowed enslavers to criminalize and "reclaim" any enslaved person who ran away in search of freedom.

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